[Foundation-l] board candidacies

[Ray Saintonge]

Walter van Kalken wrote:

>Brad Patrick wrote:
>  
>
>>Brion Vibber wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Does someone handling e-mail and press inquiries actually have to be in St. Pete?
>>>      
>>>
>>Of course not.  Someone answering the office main number and helping 
>>with basic office stuff probably ought to be *in* the office, though.  
>>It's working so far.
>>    
>>
>Even someone answering the officenumber doesn't have to be in the 
>office. Together with my father and a friend we have started a voip 
>telephony company last year. This year we decided to also do 
>retailtraffic and we are currently testing with numbers that for 
>instance are Dutch local numbers but can be teminated (through voip) 
>anywhere in the world.
>
>This can be done with numbers in many countries now. So people can call 
>you on a local number but you can be anywhere in the world as long as 
>your comp is on.
>
>As far as I know the same is possible with US numbers.
>
It already happens with customer service and help lines. 

There are still some mundane tasks that cannot be done well at a 
distance.  Bookkeeping would be a prime example of this.  That person 
needs direct access to the paperwork to verify that what is recorded 
matches the invoices, or that the right amount is paid for bills.  A 
person could phone someone to check data, but that involves two people's 
time when it would be easier just to walk across the room to the filing 
cabinet.  It's also difficult to give supervision and direction from a 
distance.  If the person suddenly quits (as happened in St. Petes) time 
could be wasted just trying to sort out what happened or getting all the 
paperwork back so that you can send it to a different person in yet 
another city.

Ec